The name Candy Bleakz may not currently be a household name, but her viral songs preceed her name in Nigerian households. Her recent single Tikuku made rounds on social media as a dance challenge and has garnered over 305,000 videos with the sound.



Before there was a Candy Bleakz, there was BlessKido. When opening up about how Candy Bleakz – birth name Blessing Akiode – derived her stage name, she stated her stage name was formerly BlessKido. Circa 2012 and the influx of new artists with ‘kid’ suffixes to their stage names, Blessing wanted hers to stand out. In that attempt she added two suffixes instead, ‘kid’ and ‘do’ to the first four letters of her name, hence Blesskiddo. It wasn’t long before another name change was cleverly suggested during one of her studio sessions and thus Blesskido morphed to Candy Bleakz.



Candy Bleakz’s sound has many similarities to street music, a genre that has had Nigerians in a chokehold from the early days of Baddest Guy Ever Liveth. The genre is majorly characterized by inserting local slangs, and infusing indigenous languages and Pidgin English into lyrics. The lyrics are primarily odes to hood lifestyle and community. Inasmuch as Candy Bleakz’s sound checks all of those boxes, the artist describes her sound as not just Street music but ‘Afro-Street’.

This constantly earns her sets of furrowed brows from her label execs but the songstress is confident in the term. “I’m making music for everybody, not just the street” She explains to Behind. Despite her music having the sound and style of traditional street music, she assures the content is relatable for all, hence the Pan-African prefix ‘Afro’ to the genre title. One thing that’s clear is she doesn’t relent to describe her sound with a term that seems true to her.

Her confidence in her music wasn’t acquired in weeks but rather from over nine years of music-making. Before becoming affiliated with Chocolate City in 2013, the artiste had begun making music many years before that. Candy Bleakz’s musical exploit dates back to 2011 at Majidun Secondary School. After Blessing (Candy Bleakz), the young class representative emerged winner of an inter-school music competition, her interest in music was piqued. Although she became somewhat of a local champion at her school because of her musical success, it wasn’t until her second year as a physiology student at Olabisi Olabanjo University that she focused purely on music.

source: https://tushmagazine.com.ng/candy-bleakz-says-she-is-the-king-of-street-music-with-the-release-of-her-debut-ep/

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lalasticlala, mynd44, dominique

Maybe she meant "female king of street music". She's not the king but she's damn good.